1. A brief introduction to Key for Schools and Preliminary for Schools

2. Aims of the seminar To explain
why taking English language exams is important;
why there are special versions of KEY for Schools and PRELIMINARY for schools;
how KEY for Schools and PRELIMINARY for Schools are:
constructed
assessed
administered;
what support is available.

3. The importance of English language exams
English is spoken internationally by 1.5 billion people
Certified proof of ability in English gives individuals:
confidence to live and travel in other countries
ability to follow a course of study in English at tertiary level
a competitive advantage and workplace opportunities for appointment and promotion
Cambridge exams are recognised worldwide

4. KEY for Schools and PRELIMINARY for Schools
Why?
An increasingly younger candidature
Increased interest from school sector
Who for?
Primarily targeted at children in compulsory education
How do the exams differ from KEY and PRELIMINARY?
Treatment of topics
In what ways are they the same?
Exam format and concepts on which they are based, grading and assessment and administration remain the same

5. The Council of Europe Founded 1949. Promotes languages for
mutual understanding
personal mobility
access to information in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural Europe.
Developed the Common European Framework.

6. The Common European Framework
Provides a basis for language syllabi
Describes language and skills for communication in a range of contexts
Defines levels of proficiency

7. Cambridge English Levels Council of Europe Levels
Certificate of Proficiency in English (CPE)
Mastery C2
Certificate of Advanced English (CAE)
Effective Proficiency C1
First Certificate in English (First)
Vantage B2
Preliminary English Test (Preliminary)
Threshold B1
Key English Test (Key)
Waystage A2
Breakthrough A1

8. The test development process

9. Testing the right things
A syllabus based on current language use.
The 4 skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing.
The strategies and skills needed to cope with a foreign language in everyday real-life communication.

10. Topics
Texts and topic areas researched from up-to-date sources such as the Internet, magazines and real-life situations, and adapted to the level
Relevant to experience and interests of school aged children:
daily life, holiday destinations, entertainment, media, natural world, hobbies, school and study, celebrations, clothes, environment, sport, food, inventions, shopping, the home, lifestyles

11. Treatment of topics buying a bike or buying a car
sharing a flat or sharing a room
going to the opera or to a concert
choosing food or paying in a restaurant
going to the gym or to the swimming pool
making an appointment or going to the doctor
organising or going on a journey
work schedules or different jobs
Have participants discuss, in pairs or small groups, which topics are more suitable for the ‘for Schools’ exams before taking feedback and discussing as a whole group.
Suggested answers
The point is that the key topics (transport, home, eating and drinking, leisure, etc.) are the same, regardless of the age of candidature, but the treatment is different.
So ‘for Schools’ exams might deal with:
buying a bike but not a car
sharing a room (with a sibling) but not a flat
going to a concert/gig but not the opera
choosing food in a restaurant but not organising payment
going to the pool rather than the gym
going to the doctor but not setting up an appointment
going on a journey but not making arrangements for it
different types of jobs but not details of work schedules.

12. Speaking KEY for Schools PRELIMINARY for Schools Basic level (A2)
2 tasks
mins
25% of total mark
Familiar situations – meeting people, giving factual, personal and non-personal information
PRELIMINARY for Schools
Intermediate level (B1)
4 tasks
mins
25% of total mark
Everyday events in an English-speaking country
Discussion and description

14. Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools Speaking Part 2
Point out that in Part 2 the two candidates are talking together, and not with the interlocutor.
There is no right answer to the task (candidates are being assessed on their language ability and not their ideas) and, ideally, the candidates will not reach agreement too quickly.
Read out the exam task:
I'm going to describe a situation to you.
A boy is leaving his school because his parents are going to work in another country. The students in his class want to give him a present. Talk together about the different presents they could give him and then decide which would be best.
Here is a picture with some ideas to help you.
The pictures are intended just as prompts to help them think of ideas.
Before showing slide: Assessment criteria, ask participants what aspects of language they feel examiners might be focusing on in the Speaking tests of each exam.
Show the Assessment Criteria slide to confirm their answers.

15. Speaking assessment At both levels:
candidates are assessed independently according to specific criteria
2 examiners:
Assessor focuses on detailed criteria
Interlocutor focuses on overall effectiveness in dealing with the tasks

16. Assessment criteria Cambridge English: Key for Schools
Grammar and Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Interactive Communication
Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools
Grammar and Vocabulary
Pronunciation
Interactive Communication
Discourse Management
Draw attention to the importance of Interactive Communication, i.e. a candidate who does not let his/her partner speak will be penalised.
Also draw attention to the fact that Discourse Management comes in at Cambridge English: Preliminary level (because it is only at that level that candidates are expected to manage a longer turn).

17. Listening KEY for Schools 25 - 30 mins 25% of total mark
Understand announcements and other everyday spoken material
PRELIMINARY for Schools
mins
25% of total mark
Understand a range of recordings including announcements and texts from everyday life
Understand attitude and intention
Take notes

18. KEY for Schools Reading and Writing
Reading and Writing are combined
1 hr 10 mins, 50% of total mark
Reading:
based on signs, short messages, brochures, newspapers and magazines
understand the main message
choose the best word to fill a gap
match functional statements or questions with responses
Writing:
write a short message or note based on 3 required pieces of information

19. PRELIMINARY for Schools Reading and Writing
Reading and Writing are combined
1 hr 30 mins
Reading – 25% of total mark
based on signs, labels, journals, newspaper and magazine articles
understand the main points, attitude and intended effect
select words to fill in gaps in a text through understanding of lexico-structural patterns
Writing – 25% of total mark
write a short message
write a story or letter of 100 words on a familiar subject
manipulate sentence structure using given lexical and grammatical patterns

20. Teaching ideas: Reading and Writing
Cambridge English: Key for Schools Part 6
If you enjoy taking photographs, you will need this.
C _ _ _ _ _
Students practise writing definitions for words studied in class.
Teacher rapidly provides definitions for, say, 10 words: who can write down the most words?
Competitions: students define words for their teams.
Quickly remind participants of the nature of this part – students have to find the words that relate to the definitions – they are given the first letter and the number of letters is indicated.
The skill of giving and understanding definitions is clearly a useful one.
It can be used as:
a way of revising words worked on in class or
for games, where either the teacher provides the definitions or the students provide them.
Ask if participants have other suggestions for dealing with this skill.

21. Teaching ideas: Reading and Writing
Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools Part 2
Matching people to holidays, films, magazines, etc.
Students look just at the people and discuss what kind of holiday/film/magazine would suit each one.
Students look just at the holidays/films/magazines, etc., and discuss which would appeal most to themselves and other people they know, and why.
N.B. This slide is animated.
Suggest participants have a quick look at the sample Cambridge English: Preliminary Reading Part 2 task in the handbook before going through the ideas with the group.
The two ideas on this slide are set to appear separately, so you can talk through one before dealing with the next.

22. Teaching ideas: Reading and Writing
Both Cambridge English: Key for Schools and Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools
Prepare a model answer for a task in the sample paper and then gap some of the words – students discuss in pairs how to complete the answer.
Look at sample answers to tasks on the Cambridge English website – discuss what is good about them and also if, and how, they could be improved.
Present these two ideas quickly first.
Then divide participants into groups of three or four. Participants choose either Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools or Cambridge English: Key for Schools and discuss other ways in which they might help learners prepare for the Writing paper. (As the Writing paper is relatively short, it is the easiest one to focus on for this kind of activity.)
Take feedback, perhaps asking each group to share one or two ideas.

23. Teaching ideas: Listening
Give students tapescripts of a listening task (or play them the CD) and ask them to predict what the questions will be.
Have half the class read the questions before listening to the recording and the other half listen for the first time before looking at the questions – students then compare to see which way worked best.
Show the first idea and elicit from participants why this is useful as a task.
Answer
It helps students to identify the main topic.
In the second idea students should find that it is better if they have read the questions first, as this gives a prior impression of what the recording is about; it will bring essential vocabulary to the front of their minds, etc.
You may wish to ask if participants have other ideas that they would recommend using when preparing pupils for the kind of listening required in the exams – but this is quite an open question, so you may prefer to simply allow more time for discussion of issues raised in the final two slides.

24. Teaching ideas: Speaking
Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools
Ask students, in pairs, to prepare tests for each other:
to revise some introductory personal questions;
to think up a task for Part 2;
to find two themed photographs/pictures;
to suggest some discussion questions relating to the theme of their pictures.
This kind of task is useful in that it:
helps to raise awareness of the format of the test
provides a wealth of material that can be more motivating for learners than something that has come from a coursebook.
Students can then administer ‘their’ tests to each other and this can help to raise their awareness of the assessment criteria.
Having discussed this activity, discuss with the participants whether something similar could be done with the Cambridge English: Key Speaking test.
Then ask participants, in pairs, to choose a sample paper for either the Cambridge English: Key for Schools or Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools exam and to consider whether there are other questions students could usefully prepare exam tasks for to test each other with.
This may suggest some useful teaching ideas and it is also a useful way to provide a quick summing-up overview of the tests.

25. Round-up
What features/aspects of the Cambridge English: Key for Schools or Cambridge English: Preliminary for Schools exams do you think your students would enjoy?
Which part(s) of the exams do you think your students would find the most challenging?
What would you do and where would you look to find out more about these two exams, or any other Cambridge English exam?
Deal with these questions quickly in plenary.
N.B. The answer to the third question is on the slide: Further information.

26. Administration launch: March 2009 6 times per year
exam dates on
examination centre information on
CB versions available from March 2010
more exam dates
registration when the candidate feels ‘exam ready’
faster turn-round times for results
headphones with adjustable volume for listening exams

27. Grading and results PRELIMINARY for Schools Each skill – 25%
No minimum pass mark on individual papers
Results reported as Pass with Merit, Pass, CEFR Level A2 and Fail
Pass = approx. 70% of total marks
Candidates given Statement of Results with a graphical profile for each skill
Pass candidates receive a lifelong certificate

28. Further information Website: www.Cambridgeenglish.org
Teaching resources Teaching tips, ideas and activities.
Teachers’ seminars.
Handbooks.
Sample / past papers / exam reports.

29. Contact us University of Cambridge English Examinations
1 Hills Road, Cambridge, CB1 2EU, UK
Tel: (+44)
Fax: (+44)
Pre-testing unit: (+44)
Keep up to date with what’s new via the Cambridge English website: